Caucasus : A Journey to the Land between Christianity and Islam

Rating:
Summary: Historical facts blend with a travelogue
Review: Historical facts blend with a travelogue narrative recounting Nicholas Griffin's personal journey through the region in his vividly written Caucasus, an informed and informative examination of the clash of cultures and ancient to modern conflicts inherent in this strife torn area. From headlines about the Chechen insurgency, to the terrain and everyday life of the Caucasus peoples, Nicholas Griffin's Caucasus is not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing
Review: I've always felt much safer following novelists into non-fiction than say biographers, or historians into the realms of fiction. Griffin, who has written a couple of historical novels, is on familiar, though foreign ground. His fictional stories seem to examine cruelty and hope and his first work of non-fiction is no exception. It's a mixture of many genres, all neatly rolled into a short, decisive book. The Caucasus is one of those places, much like the Balkans, which used to confuse me to the point where I'd rather turn the page. But Griffin keeps everything simple and clear, following myths, history and politics along the lines of an expanding Christian nation (Russia) and a defensive Islamic nation (what came to be called Chechnya, Dagestan and Azerbaijan). This book is obviously more topical than the author thought when starting it four years ago. My only complaint is in the inclusion of the author's own travels. At first, it didn't feel as if they merited belonging, but once you catch the writer's drift, that everything is really very close to how it was two hundred years ago, his aims become more and more apparent. Caucasus is blessedly easy to read, and that's no mean feat.